Thousands of demonstrators protested in Barcelona over the weekend, marching and blasting tourists with water guns amid growing frustration with overtourism in Spain. The main group organizing the demonstration also published a manifesto listing 13 demands, including restrictions on tourist accommodations and fewer cruise terminals in the city’s port. (Washington Post)
Our Take
Barcelona has in many ways become the poster child for overtourism—when the number of visitors outpaces the capacity of city centers, cultural sites and residential neighborhoods to receive them. But it is far from the only destination with this problem, and the list of cities struggling with overtourism is only growing, especially as pent-up demand for leisure travel during the COVID-19 pandemic led to an explosion of tourism in the past two years.
To be sure, overtourism is undoubtedly a problem. As Jennie Germann Molz wrote for WPR in 2020:
The more destinations rearrange themselves to cater to tourist spending, the more local culture, housing and resources have become commodified for tourist consumption, which in turn requires attracting more and more tourists to feed local economies. It has ultimately made these destinations highly vulnerable to disruptions in tourist flows. And beyond hollowing out local cultures and economies, mass tourism has exacerbated the industry’s worst environmental impacts, contributing to carbon emissions, taxing local water supplies and threatening fragile ecosystems.
It makes sense that these effects would lead to local backlash, as seen most visibly in Spain, the Netherlands, Japan and elsewhere. And indeed, many places struggling with overtourism have started implementing measures to limit the number of visitors, or at least limit tourists’ impact on local society.
But at the same time, it’s also true that tourism is a massive driver of economic growth in many destinations. Spain, for instance, was the second-most-visited country in the world last year, and more than 10 percent of the country’s GDP comes from tourism. Curtailing visitors to popular destinations would certainly have a negative impact on the economy. And that issue is even more acute for developing economies that rely on tourism to fund national development.
It’s also worth noting that the dilemmas posed by the rise of mass tourism parallel debates over growing global migration, which has had similar impacts on many regions. Local communities along transit routes—like the Darien Gap—have become reliant on migration for economic activity, while destination countries for migrants enjoy significant economic benefits, even as the backlash to migration’s impact on local socio-cultural landscapes increasingly polarizes domestic politics and fuels international tensions.
Obviously, the proximate causes of tourism and migration are different. But the rise in both in recent decades has been fueled by the same force: globalization, which has allowed for increased mobility across borders, while also driving increased displacement. Against the backdrop of this tension between mobility and displacement, the growing backlash to both overtourism and immigration can be seen as part of the broader backlash to globalization’s social and economic impacts. That backlash is now a driving force in global politics, both within and between states.
BYD, China’s largest car manufacturer, agreed to a $1 billion deal to build an electric vehicle plant in Turkey, FT reports. The plant, which will be capable of producing 150,000 EVs a year, is set to begin production at the end of 2026 and will create about 5,000 jobs, according to the Turkish government.
Over the past 18 months, BYD has been pursuing an aggressive internationalization strategy, particularly by investing in local manufacturing. As Jacob Mardell wrote in April about similar efforts in Brazil, while the wave of cheap imported Chinese EVs has spurred policymakers in the U.S. and Europe to protectionist action, no such qualms exist in emerging economies eager to create new jobs.
Morocco is set to acquire a spy satellite from state-owned Israeli Aerospace Industries under a $1 billion contract, Moroccan media reported Wednesday.
Israel and Morocco’s military ties stretch back decades, but weren’t formalized until 2021, when the two states normalized diplomatic relations. As Jean-Loup Samaan wrote at the time, while Israel may see some benefit to formalized security ties, it also puts the country at the mercy of the volatile security environment in the Maghreb.
Ukraine announced yesterday it is opening a new office in Washington to help strengthen its ties to the U.S. defense industry. Amid the ongoing war with Russia, Ukraine has become reliant on U.S. military aid. But as Zachary Popovich wrote recently, Ukraine should create its own domestic defense industrial base to reduce its dependency on foreign aid for its war effort.
Thailand announced the appointment of a new Senate on Wednesday, replacing the previously military-appointed lawmakers with a new set of legislators that analysts say could make it harder for the ruling Pheu Thai party to govern. As Joshua Kurlantzick wrote in May, Pheu Thai is already struggling to implement the changes it promised after taking power with a controversial coalition government last year.
